The federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., that last week indicted former President Donald Trump is meeting again Tuesday, a strong sign that special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results soon could add more defendants.
NBC News reported that multiple members of the grand jury were seen around the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington.
The same panel on Aug. 1 charged Trump with four felony counts related to his attempt to reverse President Joe Biden’s victory over him.
The indictment details the role that six alleged co-conspirators, most of them lawyers, played in that scheme.
Those six people were not identified by name. But there has been speculation since the indictment that some or all of them could soon be criminally charged.
Smith last week had pointedly said, “Our investigation of other individuals continues.”
An attorney for the Trump ally lawyer John Eastman last week confirmed that Eastman was likely the second co-conspirator described in the indictment.
Eastman’s attorneys last week asked a judge in California to postpone ongoing disbarment proceedings against Eastman due to the possibility he will be indicted for the same conduct that is the subject of that action.
California’s State Bar counsel is seeking to yank Eastman’s law license in the state because of his role in promoting a strategy to deny Biden his electoral victory by getting then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the legitimacy of a number of states’ results in 2020.
“Specific charges allege that Eastman made false and misleading statements regarding purported election fraud, including statements on January 6, 2021, at a rally in Washington, D.C., that contributed to provoking a crowd to assault and breach the Capitol to intimidate then-Vice President Pence and prevent the electoral count from proceeding,” the State Bar said in January.
On Monday, the disgraced former New York City Police Department commissioner Bernie Kerik met for hours with investigators from Smith’s office in Washington.
Kerik’s lawyer said the interview centered on the role that Trump campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani played in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. Kerik worked with Giuliani on that effort.
The Trump indictment details the work of a co-conspirator who appears to be Giuliani.
Trump, 77, has pleaded not guilty in the indictment.
He currently is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
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